An Unspoken Art

Gutkind notes that some 45% of cat owners and 25% of dog owners invite their pets into their beds at night--exactly the (people) audience that will be charmed by his depiction of veterinarians, whom he considers more humanistic than physicians. Focusing on a clinic on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and its practice, devoted to household pets; on the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which performs extraordinary equine surgery and the Pittsburgh Zoo and the relatively new fields of zoo and wildlife veterinary, Gutkind (Stuck in Time) takes us into remarkably caring and occasionally heroic lives. Also disarming, he treats pet owners with the same respect he does animals here, even the woman who spent $50,000 for treatments that extended her cat's life by three years and a dog owner who persists in feeding her ailing pet its preferred, unhealthy diet of chicken and kiwi. And although it's outside the province of his book, Gutkind briefly discusses medical research on animals, though he sidesteps the controversy. He may not be the next best thing to James Herriot, but he knows how to tell animal tales that are endearing without being cloying. (Aug.)